The National Let Their Stirring Sound Ring Out

If there was ever a band who didn't fit the festival mold, it's the National. Their songs are late-night meditations on love, loss and regret — not exactly rousing sing-along material. However, that didn't stop a passionate crowd from turning downtrodden tunes like "Baby, We'll Be Fine" (with it's refrain of "I'm so sorry for everything") into unabashed anthem. The group's stirring indie anthems were augmented by a horn section, which gave "Start a War" a little extra gravitas. Frontman Matthew Beringer didn't seem fazed by the venue in the slightest — perhaps opening an arena tour for R.E.M. lent him some swagger — and he managed to whip the crowd into a frenzy while shredding his vocal cords during the set-closing "Mr. November," which he dedicated to Barack Obama.

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Song Stories

“Let My Love Open the Door”

Pete Townshend | 1980

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."

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